This first post is a direct copy and paste from a post I made in the official Tanking forum a while back. It gives an overview of how the attack table works. In the second post I will explain what this means for us and our pets.

This post is meant to be an easy to understand primer on how the attack table works, how if effects tanks and the way their avoidance effects combat. Anyone who is serious about end game raiding should do further research into the topic, but this post should serve as a simple and effective introduction.

Whenever two characters attack each other in melee whether they be playable or non-playable characters a random number generator is used in conjunction with the player's or NPC's stats to decide what the result of those attacks should be. A random number from 1 to 100 is generated and each possible outcome is assigned a range of numbers. The game takes a 100% chance to be hit, then subtracts your chance to be missed. Then from what percentage is left subtracts your chance to dodge. From the percentage left from that they subtract your chance to parry, then again for your chance to block. Whatever is left over is your chance to be hit. Understanding how the combat table works is a pivotal part of being an end game tank

Here's a visual aid. Let's assume for this example that this is a warrior using a shield who is uncrittable and fighting a same level NPC. This Warrior has about 12.5% chance each to be missed and to dodge, parry and block an attack.

Once again the game generates a random number between 1 and 100 and each number again has an assigned result. ~1-13 = Miss, ~14-25 = Dodge, ~ 26-38 = Parry, ~39-100 = Block.Since the maximum number that can be generated is 100, any result that would require a roll greater than 100 is not possible and has been "pushed off the attack table." Since the random number generator would have to roll more than 100 for the tank to be hit, hits have been pushed off the hit table. You can also see here that a large portion of the block chance isn't being used, but it still has not effected the chance to be missed, dodge, or parry.

The priority at which player avoidance stats will push each other off the table is: Miss - Dodge - Parry - BlockThe results furthest to the right will get pushed off first.

Now lets assume the warrior is still fighting a same level mob but he has no gear or talents that reduce his chance to be critically hit.

Mobs at the same level as a player have a 5% chance to critically hit that player. The player has the same chance to be missed, dodge, parry, and block as before, but also have a 5% chance to be critically hit and his chance to be hit normally is 45%. His chance to be hit by the boss is 50%, same as it was before, but now 5% out the 50% chance to be hit will result in a critical hit instead of a normal hit. The reverse is also true, reducing your chance to be crit will only reduce your chance to be crit, it will not affect your chance to be hit.

The hit table changes when a player fights a mob that is higher in level than the player.

A mob above a player will have a reduced chance to miss that player and players have a reduced chance to dodge, parry and block, all at a rate of .2% per level. Therefor a mob one level above a player will only have a 4.8% chance to miss that player, and a boss three levels above a player will have a 4.4% chance to miss that player. Against that same boss, the player's chance to dodge, parry, and block will each be .6% lower than is shown in the tooltip. Higher level mobs also have a greater chance to crit a player, again at a rate of .2% additional chance per level.

Crushing Blows are strikes made by NPCs against players 4 levels or more below them. A mob four levels above a player have a 15% chance to crush that player with an additional 2% chance for every additional level. Since raid bosses are considered to be three levels above the player, only tanks below the level cap are susceptible to crushing blows. Players tanking instances while leveling may however be crushed by NPCs in instances above their level.

The player has .8% less chance each to be missed, parry, dodge, and block because the mob is four levels above him. However he now has a 5.8% chance to be critically hit from the mob's higher level, and a 15% chance to receive a crushing blow.

Lets pretend that the warrior has changed his gear, and has managed to get a 30% chance each to dodge, parry, and block with the baseline 5% chance to be missed. For a mob four levels above him, .8% avoidance must be subtracted from each of these stats.

The player's combined chance to be missed, dodge, parry and block is 91.8% (4.2+ 29.2 +29.2 + 29.2) leaving a 8.2% chance for the player to be hit. Since the warrior has a 5.8% chance the be critically hit by this mob, there is only 2.4% left on the attack table. Therefore there would be a 2.4% chance to be crushed, while the other 12.6% chance to be crushed as well as normal hits have been pushed off the attack table. In this scenario every attack that hit the player would result in a critical hit or crushing blow.

The order in which incoming attacks get pushed off the table is: Critical hits - Crushing blows - Normal hitOnce again, results furthest to the right will get pushed off first.

A proper end game tank will be both uncrushable and uncritable. Uncrushable will come automatically through level. Uncrittable can be accomplished through a combination of talents, defense rating and resilience.

Before diminishing returns were instituted for avoidance, a tank that reached a combined miss, dodge, parry, and block chance of 102.4% a tank would no longer be able to be hit by a mob three levels above them, including raid bosses. With the addition of diminishing returns, its now (virtually?) impossible to gain completely physical damage immunity through avoidance.

Last edited by Durante on Tue Apr 21, 2009 1:08 pm; edited 1 time in total

There is still much thats not yet known about pet avoidance that still needs to be discovered. For the purposes of this post I'm going to assume pets have a 5% chance each to dodge, block, parry, and be missed by a same level mob, but will update the post later.

Your pet's chance to be hit will remain unchanged, you'll now just have 4% less chance for that hit to result in a critical strike.

Unsatisfied with only 20% avoidance, you put points into pet dodge talents and get your pet more agility in group buffs to increase its dodge to 17%, then put Scorpid Sting up its tanking target to give it 8% chance to be missed.

Your pet will now have 35% avoidance and 65% change to be hit, 1% of those hits still resulting in a crit. Increasing your pet's avoidance will reduce the number of hits your pet takes, but it will not reduce the number of crits. Similarly, Grace of the Mantis will reduce the number of hits that result in a crit, but will not reduce the total number of hits suffered.

Last edited by Durante on Wed Apr 22, 2009 12:48 am; edited 2 times in total

Exactly, blocks will always reduce the incoming damage by the same amount, the pet's block value. Block value is increased through strength, so aside from raid buffs there's probably not much we can do in terms of raising out pets block value. Blocked attack cannot crit.

Pet Str isn't increased by the buffs on the hunter, so you'll have to satisfy with buffs on the pet alone. So there's not much changes you can do to increase it, apart from bringing classes that grant buffs to Str.

I was actually thinking more in terms of how much block per point of strength. Unfortunately it looks like we can't tell our pets block rating at all so I figure it can't be hugely significant in terms of stopping crits.

A while back I tested block chance out and I think its derived from the base chance to block, so 5%

I don't think we will be able to change that chance.

I'd like to do some more testing on this. Does anyone have a recommendation for a good world elite for each level? (80,81,82,83) Unfortunately testing dummies dont hit back, it would be useful if they did.

Doug wrote:If blocks reduce crits and blocks scale with strength could someone have a look at how much we reduce crits by though the food buff and player buffs? I'm gonna check this out now myself too.

Remember, chance to block, dodge, parry or be missed will not reduce chance to be crit, only chance to be hit. Adding extra avoidance pushed normal hits off the combat table before crits, so you'd have to have a combined avoidance of 100% against a same level mob to push crits off the table.

As for testing, I have a level 76 turtle that I'm leveling. I might be able to convince someone with a blank set of talents to duel my pet and AFK for a while and just auto attack it at 77, 78, 79, and 80 so I can get a nice big sample size. Hypothetically you should be able to test an 80 pet against another 80 player in this fashion though and be able to just reduce each type of avoidance's chance by .2% per level difference and increase crit chance by .2% chance per level, since as far as we know all playable and non-playable characters use the same type of hit table.

With a player you would have to be sure they were totally naked and didnt use any talents that affected the stats, but that could probably work out pretty smoothly.

I need to get my wws reports back up and working and start taking on some mobs. There is a level 80 elite in Crystal Song thats not too tough, I could maybe just let him wail on my pet for as long as possible, log an hour or two of that, and then use wws to sum up the data.

The only problem with wws is that there are limits on overall time, and also the test time has to be fairly consecutive, so i might have to make a series of seperate logs and then sum them up myself.

Maybe we could create a WWS report account that we could all post our results to, that might be fun =)

Provided all mobs use a one hit table this should be true. I was kinda hoping it they have two rolls like we do, in which case fewer hits=fewer crits. I know this is the case for melee specials (Warriors for instance) but I presume NPC's use one roll since I haven't come across anything to the contrary.

Ihlos wrote:I'd like to do some more testing on this. Does anyone have a recommendation for a good world elite for each level? (80,81,82,83) Unfortunately testing dummies dont hit back, it would be useful if they did.

I was gonna say they hit like girls but that would be demeaning to girls. Loads of stam.

For 81 it is possible to do testing with the opening pair of mobs in HHoL or HUK if you freeze one, disengage to bail, but normally you come out fine (I used to do it with the Improved traps, harder without I imagine).

Nordh wrote:Pet Str isn't increased by the buffs on the hunter, so you'll have to satisfy with buffs on the pet alone. So there's not much changes you can do to increase it, apart from bringing classes that grant buffs to Str.

You seem to be forgetting Str Scrolls (cast on the pet) and Pet Stat Food. The scrolls are whatever level you can get, but any Str bonus couldn't hurt. Pet Food is 20Str for the BC version and the Wrath version is 30Str. And also remember, that both of these foods also have the same amount of Sta as well. Very handy for mitigation and even threat through SB (since everyone seems to really like that).

Nordh wrote:Pet Str isn't increased by the buffs on the hunter, so you'll have to satisfy with buffs on the pet alone. So there's not much changes you can do to increase it, apart from bringing classes that grant buffs to Str.

You seem to be forgetting Str Scrolls (cast on the pet) and Pet Stat Food. The scrolls are whatever level you can get, but any Str bonus couldn't hurt. Pet Food is 20Str for the BC version and the Wrath version is 30Str. And also remember, that both of these foods also have the same amount of Sta as well. Very handy for mitigation and even threat through SB (since everyone seems to really like that).

I was just referring to the fact that Doug said buffs to the hunters to increase the pets Strength and saying it only works with buffs directly to the pet.